Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Spring Cleaning and Breastfeeding

The word "breastfeed" appears 12 times in this blog post. "Breast milk" appears 4 times. You've been warned.

I've been making a small to-do list most days with my goals for the day. Checking things off a list just does it for me. They're small tasks, easy to complete in a few minutes, and then maybe one big thing that needs to get done. I don't usually finish all of them, but that's ok. If I check most of the things off my list, it makes me feel like a successful and accomplished woman. It also makes me feel skinnier and more tan. And my pores shrink and my split ends go away.

I don't know how it happens, but it just does. Scientists, get on that study, wouldja?

I've been putting little organizing projects on my list every day too, so maybe in the next week or so, I'll have a bunch of newly organized spaces.

On my list today is:

  • Clean out the freezer (check)
  • Finish a sewing project for an unnamed unborn baby
  • Laundry (half-check)
It's only noon and I'm half done with my list! PLUS I FIXED MY HAIR TODAY AND IT'S ONLY NOON!

Anyway, you wouldn't believe what was in our freezer forever and ever! I had tons of homemade baby food frozen in cubes in there. Green bean and Peas that C would never eat because I didn't cook them enough before pureeing them. 

Oh, and 60 oz of expired, frozen breast milk.

TMI ALERT! (What, I should have said that before I started talking about breast milk? My bad.)

Well now I'm going to talk about breastfeeding so feel free to look away if you want.

Fun fact: I breastfed C-buddy (trying out a new nickname...I think I like it for this toddler stage,) for 14.5 months.

Fun fact 2: C-buddy stopped using a bottle at right around 6 months. 

That means I was with him for every single feeding for 8.5 months. This is crazy to me, as I sit here and write that. What was I thinking?!?! It is literally a blur to me.

I do know that when it was time to transition to the sippy cup, there was a bit of a struggle. A 2.5 month struggle (since stupid me, I thought I could just stop feeding him on his 1st birthday and he'd magically know how to drink out of a sippy cup and enjoy cow's milk.) You live, you learn!

After the initial 6 weeks of pure pain I endured while breastfeeding (I like to think of it as a trade-off...I got an epidural during labor and literally felt nothing while giving birth, but made up for it while breastfeeding,) I loved it. Especially when I went back to work, and it gave me some quiet, alone time with *C-baby in the evenings. 

*Note: He was a baby back then, so that nickname is past-tense.

I thought I'd try to breastfeed as long as possible, but also knew that it would probably be more difficult when the new school year started, as I would more than likely have a different schedule.

Then Kennedy got a new job, then we moved to Indiana and I got a new job as a stay-at-home mom (which is another post for another day.)

Then I decided, I'll just keep breastfeeding til he's a year and stop. By then it was sooooo much easier than bottle feeding (to me.) I didn't have to clean any more bottles which was glorious. I couldn't be away from him for very long, but that's ok because maybe I'm kind of clingy anyway. (Catch me on the next kid and ask me if I still feel the same way about not having any free time, haha). But the point is, cleaning bottles is the absolute worst.

Then C was about to turn 1 and I started getting sad, but also planning all the things I could do by myself. Like, get a hair cut (still hasn't happened,) go get a mani-pedi (check!), go to Target and just stroll through the aisles without a sense of time (uh, will this ever happen?)...

I don't know where I was going with this. But this is what happens when you clean out closets and freezers. You see something that makes you sentimental and you just need to start reminiscing out loud about it or you won't get anything else done the rest of the day. For me, seeing my expired, frozen breast milk made me feel nostalgic.

Here is one thing I do know. While I was breastfeeding, it was the most beautiful and magical thing in the world. I thought, no one realizes what a miracle this is, that my body is nourishing him completely!

Now that I'm not breastfeeding anymore, it kinda creeps me out. I don't know why, maybe just thinking about having to go backward is weird? Yeah, that's it. Because I don't think I'm creepy for breastfeeding. And I don't regret any of the time spent on it.

I'm so glad I didn't preach the gospel of breastfeeding while I was in the midst of it. I bet that is pretty obnoxious to people without breast milk.

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